The Shankill Road’s Downing Street: who lived in Number 10?

The lives of 15 residents at the humble Belfast address.

Five labourers, a flaxdresser and a driller called 10 Downing Street their home over the course of a century, further research by agendaNi has revealed. The modest terraced house off Belfast’s Shankill Road shared its name with the UK’s most powerful address from 1863 to 1981 but the site now lies deserted.

The Belfast and Ulster Street Directories, held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, list the heads of households in each street of the city for most years of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Downing Street certainly existed in 1858-1859 when a Mrs Neill lived in a cottage and there were 12 other “small houses”.

Thomas McKnight is the first recorded resident of number 10. The flaxdresser, who would have prepared the material before it was spun, lived there in 1863- 1864. Catherine Hanna was a resident in 1870 and James Crilly in 1877.

The house was vacant in 1884 but inhabited by William Prow, a labourer, in 1887. William Hill, another labourer, resided there in 1890; he is recorded again in 1892 and 1895 but with no occupation

stated. Another vacancy occurred in 1896 but Thomas Harvey, a drillier, was recorded in the following year.

Labourer ‘Jas M’Court’ was the householder as the 20th century started, in 1899 and 1900. James Montgomery followed from 1902 to 1905, but the house was then vacant for the eight years from 1906 to 1914. Thomas Stratton lived there in 1915, Robt. Taylor in 1916.

These short stays ended in 1918 when Humphrey Pryde (sometimes misspelt as Pride) took up residence. His job was not recorded but it is clear that he made it a home for 21 years, up to 1939. Mrs Pryde, possibly his widow, is then recorded from 1940 onwards; she is named as Isabella in 1958. Her house therefore survived or at least was rebuilt after the 1941 Belfast blitz. Mrs Pryde is in the 1960 book but the following year’s version was not available.

In 1962 and 1963, the house was simply ‘occupied’ with no name listed. Another labourer, Wm. J. Turtle, is recorded from 1964 to 1969, followed by John Anderson in 1970 and 1971.

The street, and city in general, was then in deeply troubled times. Number 10 was vacant in 1972, occupied in 1973, and lived in by the last known resident, S. Dean, in 1974. Vacant again in the following year, it remained so until 1979, when just four householders were left in a street of 60 or so dwellings.

All were vacant in 1980 and 1981. The 1988 and 1991 directories show a street but no house numbers, presumably after being demolished in the Housing Executive’s urban renewal scheme. With no prospect of a resident, it was not mentioned in the 1992 book.

London’s Downing Street has existed since the seventeenth century, when was it named after its owner Sir George Downing. Born in New England, Downing was Cromwell’s ambassador to Holland but later turned coat and joined the Crown.

That street’s prime resident in 1863 was Henry John Temple (Viscount Palmerston) while Margaret Thatcher was PM as its Belfast counterpart was brought to the ground.

With thanks to Graham Truesdale and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.